What influences urban residents’ intention to sort waste?: Introducing Taoist cultural values into TPB

Abstract

To accelerate green and low-carbon development and improve resource utilization efficiency, China has proposed a waste sorting policy. However, the smooth development of waste sorting is affected by the cultural values of residents. Taoist culture is a unique form of traditional Chinese culture. Studying the influence of Taoist cultural values on Chinese residents' waste sorting behaviour is a meaningful strand of research. This study introduced Taoist cultural values into planned behaviour theory to expand the framework to explore the influencing factors of waste sorting in China. This study used structural equation model (SEM) to investigate the waste sorting behaviour of 655 residents in Tangshan, China. The main hypotheses of this paper are that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control, and Taoist cultural values can directly affect residents' behavioural intention to actively sort waste and that Taoist cultural values indirectly affect residents' behavioural intentions by affecting residents' psychological factors. Notably, the study confirmed that perceived behaviour control and behavioural intention can affect residents' waste sorting behaviour positively and significantly. Thus, the findings of this study suggest changing residents' waste sorting behaviour by emphasizing Taoist cultural values. To achieve this objective, we suggest that the government build a platform to guide and publicize Taoist cultural values, publicize the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, and increase environmental protection awareness in the Chinese people. Finally, the study shows that an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is suitable for research on residents’ waste sorting behaviour.